Global HR Roles and Factors Influencing Their Development: Evidence From Emerging Indian IT Services Multinationals

Abstract

The rapid growth of emerging markets' multinational companies (MNCs) is a recent phenomenon and as such their nature and structure of key management processes, functions and roles need further examination. While an abundance of low cost labor is the starting point of competitive advantage for many of the emerging markets' MNCs, it is the optimum configuration of people, processes and technology that defines how they leverage their intangible resources. Based on case studies of four Indian IT services MNCs, involving 51 in-depth interviews of business and human resource (HR) leaders at the corporate and subsidiary levels, we identify five key HR roles, namely, strategic business partner, guardian of culture, builder of global workforce and capabilities, champion of processes, and facilitator of employee development via empowerment and learning. The analysis also highlights that the HR function in Indian IT services MNCs faces several challenges in consolidating the early gains of internationalization, such as a lack of decentralized decision making, developing a global mindset, localization of workforce and developing a global leadership pipeline. Based on our exploratory findings, we propose a framework outlining the global HR roles pursued by emerging IT services MNCs, the factors influencing them, and the challenges facing their HR function for future research.

HR activities and practices for project success: A multi-method approach from Indian IT firms

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Rethinking Management Theory and Practice for the Indian Context: An International Management Perspective

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Gestão internacional de recursos humanos e desafios a serem superados

“…Isso porque, as características locais impactam no desenho dos modelos de gestão (Kostova, Roth, Dacin, 2008), tanto quanto as da própria organização (Schuler et al, 1993). Assim, espera-se que aspectos como a influência do país de origem, a estratégia e estrutura corporativa, a percepção do CEO, além do tamanho e qualificação da força de trabalho global (Thite, Budhwar, Wilkinson, 2014) sejam considerados na modelagem da GIRH.…”